boot from ext. drive & reinstall windows98SE?

[Frosty]

System is 2 yrs old (AMD ATHLON XP2000+, 512 RAM/74% free)Usual software: antivirus, firewall, etc.
Drive C - Primary Master/Drive D - Secondary Master
BIOS BOOT SEQUENCE: floppy, HDD-O, CD-ROM but "boot other device" is enabled. I have a Nero external drive which was operational until Windows 98SE crashed 2 weeks ago when I uninstalled an educational game. I cannot reach SAFE MODE to access Windows for repairs and reinstallation....Message flashes to "reinstall Windows" "Explorer.exe missing file: MSVCRT.DLL" then system "hangs" ---I ran scandisk(ok); accessed my registry and all of my files are there. Last problem: Drive D is dead--spits out CD whenever I try to access it. My fault!--died 6 mos. ago but I used external drive for software, etc.
I have two ideas but don't know if they are even possible:

1. Change BIOS settings so external drive follows floppy and delete HDD-O & CD-ROM. Can I then reinstall Windows, and reset the Boot Sequence back to the original settings?
OR
2. Install new internal CD-ROM I just bought to replace the dead one?
But can I install the drivers using DOS and the new CD-ROM? Then reinstall Windows from D Drive?

ANY BETTER IDEAS??
Help in Snowy Michigan!!
Frosty

[ski]

This may work-

On another system copy the missing MSVCRT.DLL file from the Windows install CD to a CD-R or CD-RW disk, install a new internal CD-ROM drive in your system, boot into BIOS on your system and make sure the floppy drive is configured as the 1st boot device, restart your system with a Windows boot floppy inserted, select 'Start with CD-ROM support', the boot floppy will install a DOS driver for the CD-ROM drive, insert the CD disk that contains the missing file in the CD-ROM drive, copy the file to the C:\Windows\System folder, remove the boot floppy and the CD disk, restart, and see if the system boots into Windows.

[Paul Komski]

It's not clear to me if the external drive is a CD/DVD or HD - presumably its USB? Whichever, are you sure you cannot access this external drive directly from a boot floppy diskette? If the current CD on the secondary channel is problematic I would remove this from the system before continuing.

If the external is a CD/DVD then even if you cant boot to it but can access it from a boot diskette (with CDROM support) you should be able to run setup normally from the CD. If its a HDD you could copy the Win98 folder from the installation CD to the HDD on another PC and then access it from a boot floppy and run setup from the setup.exe inside the Win98 folder.

A new working internal CDdrive would be a good cheap move and the simplest way to resolve things but there are many ways of skinning a cat - and this includes using third party boot managers such as SmartBootManager and BootIt-NG to boot up a CD that refuses to be booted from the BIOS selections; BootIt-NG is particularly good at booting USB devices, including such as PenDrives and the like.

If your own BIOS setup allows and supports specific booting from a USB CD or HD then this is yet another option but it would need to come before any internal HDD in the boot order of the BIOS setup.

[Frosty]

Gentlemen-
Thanks for the suggestions. I installed a new CD-ROM; inserted boot disk and then Windows98SE CD. Worked like a charm....your support really helped.
By the way, as soon as the system detected the new CD-ROM it automatically designated a driver.
Judy in Michigan
(frosty)

[Paul Komski]

Well done - and thanks for letting us know it worked out.

By the way, as soon as the system detected the new CD-ROM it automatically designated a driver.
CDs are so standard nowadays that that is nearly always the case.